Peter burst into Steve’s office with the world’s biggest grin. He sat down and just smiled. Steve couldn’t take it for very long. “OK, so what are you so excited about?”
“I just got off the phone with Vincent. He has been on the phone all morning with AOL. They want to lead the next round.”
Steve was dumbfounded. “But we crashed and burned in front of them. Why would they be interested in us now?”
Peter held up his hands. “I’m as surprised as you are. But apparently the vision was so strong that it overcame their doubts about the technology. Plus the fact that if they work with us we still have eight to twelve months to iron out all the wrinkles and still put AOL at the front of the 3D pack.”
The wheels were spinning furiously in Steve’s head. “Well, this certainly would be the best lead we could hope for. We just have to make sure that we are all on the same page on what an investment from them means.”
Peter hopped up from his chair. “Steve, you worry too much. I am going to go tell Brent. He has been here one month and he gets AOL as a lead. Not bad, eh?”
Steve nodded as Peter sailed out the door. Then he turned to his attention to his web browser. Something was scratching at the back of his brain, and he had to figure out what it was. Steve prided himself on being able to tell when the playing field changed, and he was picking up these signals right now. He went to Venture One, a website helpful for cataloging venture capital investments and did some snooping around AOL. He was not terribly surprised by what he found. Vincent was the original investor in AOL. He looked out his window into their nondescript parking lot. “What are you up to, Vincent?”
Then Steve screamed at the top his lungs. Two grinning heads had suddenly popped up on the outside of the window. Paul and Dan burst out laughing. Paul pointed to his watch, then his mouth, and then motioned Steve outside. Apparently, it was time for lunch. Steve closed down his web browser and walked outside to join them. “So,” said Steve. “Burgers or Falafel?”
“Well,” said Paul, “I think there will be less prying ears at burgers.”
“Ah, it’s going to be one of those lunches.”
”I’m afraid so. Lots of stuff going down.” The three of them walked down the railroad tracks behind the office to Stevens Creek Boulevard, and then they walked down to the Blue Pheasant. As expected, there were not many people heading in for an early lunch. They found a corner booth and huddled like crooks.
“Well, you got me here,” said Steve. “Now hit me with the bad news.”
Paul looked around one more time for spies. “The bombs are beginning to go off, I’m afraid.”
“Great. Can you be more specific?”
“Yeah. We’re going to be leaving the company at the end of the month. We are going to tell Brent tomorrow.”
Steve leaned back and closed his eyes. “Great. Our two best engineers hitting the road. Isn’t there any other bad news you’d rather give me? Well where are you two heading?”
They both grinned at Steve like raving lunatics. Finally David broke down. “We are starting our own company. We got tired of waiting for Peter to sober up from his delusion, but we don’t think it is ever going to happen. The funny thing is, Peter is actually onto something big, but he is burying it all under the three dimensional stuff. One of the benefits of starting a company from scratch is that we are not held back by any legacy. So we get to start with a blank sheet with our company. If you think about it, the real breakthrough in this company is the way we are pumping scads of multipoint network data around at ridiculous speeds. We are going to start a company that just does that. If you think about it, it really is the core problem of the Internet. As more people come on, how do you continue to move data efficiently? So that is what we are going to do. And that is all we are going to do.”
“Do you have funding yet?”
“Not only do we have funding, we already know who we want the CEO of the company to be.”
”Well, don’t keep me in suspense. Who is it?”
“You.”
“Boy, you just don’t give up, do you? As much as I appreciate your confidence in me, I can’t do it right now guys. I made a commitment to the board and the investors to help this company launch. Some of these people are friends as well as professional associates, and I have to see this through.”
“I don’t get it,” said Paul. “You mean you are going to stay with the ship even though you know Captain Peter is going to sink the whole thing?”
“Well, we don’t know that for sure Paul. There are some different things we can do with the technology. There are still some opportunities.”
“Come on Steve, the only thing different will be Peter’s rationalizations on why things shouldn’t be different. He will never be able to face changing his original vision. It flys in the face of his unquestionable brilliance.”
“Sounds like your professional animosity is turning into personal dislike.”
“Yeah, I’d have to agree with that.” Dan snickered at this admission.
“If you don’t mind me asking, who else is looking to punch out of the airlock?”
“I think you will probably lose about six to eight in the next month,” said Paul. “I know of three people that are about to accept offers. The dogs aren’t eating the dog food any more. You really sure you want to stay around for this Steve? Come on, join us.”
Steve just slowly shook his head. “I just can’t guys. It wouldn’t be right. Just do me one favor. We have to contractually meet our deliverables with the studio. Please don’t leave before then”
Dan and Paul looked at each other and then nodded. The rest of the lunch was filled with trite small talk. Their relationship was over the moment they returned to the office. Steve knew that they would spend the rest of the day sterilizing their machines, figuring out what code they should finish and which they could just abandon in good faith. Then, they would find a web service that offered free email accounts and email themselves any code they thought they could rip off or reverse engineer. It was probably the same for every engineer about to bolt the building. When they walked back into the lobby, Paul and David didn’t even look back as they quickly walked back down the hall to engineer row. And for the first time, Steve actually started to worry.
Peter was waiting for him in his office like a rabid pitbull. He didn’t even give Steve a chance to sit down before he launched in. “We got another call from Vincent. AOL is sending some people out to do a technical due diligence. They feel they may have been overly critical in our first meeting, especially when it came to our hardware requirements. A technical due diligence means our engineering team has to blow their proverbial socks off when they come in. So will you please tell me what the hell that lunch was about?”
At this point, the truth was probably the only path he could follow. “Peter, I think we are about to lose some engineers. And I’m also worried they won’t be the last. I know you want to get AOL in the bag, but this is probably the worst time to do it. We need to get our house in order before we can move forward with outside partners.”
Peter started pacing the room. “I was reading this book about crossing the chasm. That is what is happening here. We are facing a bottomless bit, but on the other side is AOL, and we have to get ourselves over there. Crossing the chasm is the most important thing facing this company, and if someone is not going to help us across they have to be discarded.”
Steve thought this was an interesting position to take. In reality, they were not threatening to discard employees; the employees were threatening to discard them. However, Peter seemed to be completely oblivious to this. And he wasn’t going to stop there. “I think I know how I can turn this around. And we don’t need more than four engineers to pull it off. I think I can create some new software that will get us back in the game. Only the trusted people will know about it.”
The trusted people. Steve didn’t like the sound of that. When the leader starting barricading himself in the bunker, the carpet bombing couldn’t be far behind. Steve decided to try and derail this train of thought. “One question, Peter. Has Vincent said they are going to invest in the next round? Or is it just AOL he is bringing to us?”
Peter had to stop for a second to think about this. “We only have talked about AOL so far. I know he wants them to be the lead. I don’t believe the subject of them investing came up at all. I just assumed they would come back in to protect their position in the company.”
“Well, never assume anything with a round. The money isn’t in the bank until it is in the bank. Let’s just make sure we know who has what cards in this poker game, alright? And speaking of cards, are we sure we are holding the right deck right now?”
Peter stared at him. “What do you mean?”
“Well, hear me out on this. You spoke about crossing the chasm, and I agree completely that is where we are. I just wonder whether we are crossing the right one. Let’s look at the expertise in the company. We are loaded at networking and communications. And we are weak, possibly dangerously so, at graphics and interface. Given that, are we certain that we are walking in with the right solution? Maybe the argument around whether we go with a 2D or 3D interface is a red herring. Maybe the real question should be whether we should be in the interface business at all.”
“Apparently you have been talking to some of the engineers. You have to understand how to filter engineers Steve. Often when they tell you something shouldn’t be done, what they really are saying is they aren’t particularly interested in doing it. What they are interested in doing is not our problem. They do what we feel to be in the best strategic interest of this company.”
Steve held up his hands. “I agree the inmates do not run the asylum. But there are some valid questions being raised about how to deploy this company in the most effective way possible. And there is no question we are not playing to our strength right now. Maybe we should consider the possibility that the real value in this company is our networking technology, and just concentrate on that right now. Put all our wood behind one arrow.”
Peter was going into a slow burn in the middle of the office. “Steve, we can’t back off our vision now. Stivo may not be here, but the deals he put in place are, and we have to follow through with those or we will lose credibility forever with our content partners. We have to go live with them, and that means the ultimate objective of this company still needs to be the virtual spaces. Plus, that is what AOL is interested in. If we want a round, we need them. And if our current team can’t get this done, then we need to get a new team.”
Steve countered immediately. “Wait, this doesn’t make any sense. We have to decide if we are in the technology or the content business. Our strength is in technology. And our partner’s strengths are in content. So maybe we are concentrating on the wrong thing. The one thing I do know is we need to decide once and for all what we are going to do. If we are going technology, then we may have the wrong deals. If we are going content then we may have the wrong team. One is right and one is wrong. And the time to choose is now.”
Peter spun on his heels and marched out of the room.
“You’re right, of course Steve. It’s time to set things right.”